Relay device and relay system

Abstract

An LP table retains a combination of a physical port and a VLAN identifier in association with a logical port. When a frame is received at the physical port, a table processing unit acquires a logical port based on the LP table. An FDB processing unit learns a source MAC address contained in the received frame in association with the logical port acquired by the table processing unit to an FDB. A plurality of logical ports are set for the physical port by the LP table. A loop prevention unit prohibits frame relay between the plurality of logical ports set for the physical port.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A relay device comprising:
 a physical port; 
 a logical port table which retains a combination of the physical port and a VLAN identifier in association with a logical port; 
 a table processing unit which acquires the logical port based on the logical port table when a frame is received at the physical port; 
 an FDB (Forwarding DataBase); 
 an FDB processing unit which learns a source MAC address contained in the received frame in association with the logical port acquired by the table processing unit to the FDB; 
 a loop prevention unit; 
 a VID conversion unit which converts a VLAN identifier contained in the received frame into an internal VLAN identifier; and 
 a multicast processing unit which retains a correspondence relation between the internal VLAN identifier and the logical port or a plurality of logical ports, and determines the logical port or the plurality of logical ports to be a destination or destinations based on the internal VLAN identifier of the frame when the received frame is a multicast frame, wherein 
 the plurality of the logical ports are set for the physical port by the logical port table, and 
 the loop prevention unit prohibits frame relay between the plurality of logical ports set for the physical port. 
 
     
     
       2. A relay device comprising:
 a physical port; 
 a logical port table which retains a combination of the physical port and a VLAN identifier in association with a logical port; 
 a table processing unit which acquires the logical port based on the logical port table when a frame is received at the physical port; 
 an FDB (Forwarding DataBase); 
 an FDB processing unit which learns a source MAC address contained in the received frame in association with the logical port acquired by the table processing unit to the FDB; and 
 a loop prevention unit, wherein 
 a plurality of the logical ports are set for the physical port by the logical port table, 
 the loop prevention unit prohibits frame relay between the plurality of logical ports set for the physical port, 
 the physical part is one of a plurality of physical ports for which the logical ports can be set, and 
 the loop prevention unit can set whether frame relay between the plurality of logical ports is prohibited for each of the plurality of physical ports. 
 
     
     
       3. A relay system comprising a plurality of relay devices connected via communication lines,
 wherein a first relay device which is at least one of the plurality of relay devices includes: 
 a physical port connected to other relay devices via the communication lines; 
 a logical port table which retains a combination of the physical port and a VLAN identifier in association with a logical port; 
 a table processing unit which acquires the logical port based on the logical port table when a frame is received at the physical port; 
 an FDB (Forwarding DataBase); 
 an FDB processing unit which learns a source MAC address contained in the received frame in association with the logical port acquired by the table processing unit to the FDB; and 
 a loop prevention unit, 
 wherein a plurality of the logical ports are set for the physical port by the logical port table, 
 the loop prevention unit prohibits frame relay between the plurality of logical ports set for the physical port, 
 the physical port of the first relay device is connected to at least a second relay device and a third relay device, 
 the second relay device is connected to the third relay device without interposing the first relay device, 
 the logical port table of the first relay device retains two of the logical ports connected to the second relay device and the third relay device, and 
 the loop prevention unit of the first relay device prohibits frame relay between the two logical ports. 
 
     
     
       4. The relay system according to  claim 3 , wherein
 the first relay device further includes: 
 a VID conversion unit which converts a VLAN identifier contained in the received frame into an internal VLAN identifier; and 
 a multicast processing unit which retains a correspondence relation between the internal VLAN identifier and the logical port or the plurality of the logical ports, and determines at least one of the logical ports to be a destination based on the internal VLAN identifier when the received frame is a multicast frame. 
 
     
     
       5. The relay system according to  claim 4 , wherein
 the same internal VLAN identifier is set to the two of the logical ports connected to the second relay device and the third relay device.